A Strange Disappearance (Rise of the Turtles)
by VasquezLives
Summary: (TMNT 2012 AU, first part of Where April Goes) When April O'Neil goes missing, her best friend, Spike Sanchez, goes to look for her. April's trail leads her to a strange new side of New York city, filled with alien invaders, and mutant turtles.
1. Chapter 1

**Thought I'd divide my fic into separate 'episodes', chunks that you could pick through and find specific things! So...enjoy!**

Where April O'Neil goes, Sarah Sanchez follows.

This is a simple fact that everyone who goes to April's school will tell you. Everyone knows that whenever the redheaded, blue-eyed beauty with the girlish figure walked down the hallway with a chipper smile, the brunette, grey eyed jock with the short, stocky figure was right behind her.

No one remembers where it started except for April and Sarah, called Spike, themselves.

It was kindergarten, when Sarah helped haul April up after April had fallen off the teeter-totter and gotten hit in the head with it. Sarah, a kid who even at age five was a tough nut to crack, had helped her up and made the other child apologize, and taken April under her wing.

First grade hit, and Sarah and April were inseparable, as Sarah would visit April and her father and mother, and April would come visit Sarah's two sisters and father and mother.

Second grade brought tragedy when April's mother died, leaving Kirby O'Neil, April's father, devastated, and April confused and scared. Sarah comforted her and swore to protect April for the rest of their lives.

Third grade arrived, and with it Sarah's catastrophe.

Eight years old, and Sarah was sick. A flu epidemic had hit her hard, and left her on the couch in a miserable state with nothing but books for company. April had been warned away considering the nature of the illness, and her parents, Ian and Christina, decided to make their weekly trip to the store early in order to get medicine. They left Sarah with a babysitter, kissed her forehead, and told her they'd be back soon. They took her two younger sisters, Molly and Lily, and an hour later, the news was talking about a fatal accident on the streets involving an intoxicated man with a truck and a car, an accident that cost the lives of Ian, Christina, Molly, and Lily.

It broke the remaining Sanchez's heart. She cried after she heard, after it sunk in, she cried a stain into her pillow, but after she finished crying, she never did again.

April tried to comfort her, unsure of how to deal with a girl with an ashen face and dry eyes, with a terrible, cold emptiness that had been repeatedly stuffed with guilt.

If she had never been sick.

If they had chosen another route.

If they had picked another store.

 _She should have died with them._

She knew she should have, it wasn't fair that she should live, and have to go on without the most important people to her.

Yet go on she must, and she quickly discovered that the most important person to her now was April, the one who had cried at the Sanchez funeral, and tried to keep Sarah's spirits up. She would be Sarah's's new anchor as April and her father took Sarah into their home.

Fourth grade. To keep her mind off of her loss, of the emptiness around her, Sarah began taking sports, starting with soccer and baseball. She didn't talk to anyone, and no one talked to her. No one except April. Her stoniness to others and her brutality on the soccer field gave her the nickname: 'Spike' Sanchez, a nickname that she took proudly.

Fifth grade. April O'Neil began taking drama club. Spike took martial arts, continued with her previous sports, and accepted her position on the bottom rung of the social ladder.

Sixth grade. Spike took basketball, learned to wrestle, and began to take after her heroes from her father's old movies, and began to build strength, stamina and speed with a rigorous workout schedule. April went to work on the school newspaper, quickly becoming a popular writer as well as person in the school.

Seventh grade. Spike's sports fascination came to a head when she took hockey, track and began boxing. April began to accept Spike's position as a bodyguard over her as April's warm laugh and kindness made her a friend to many, and a rather important figure to boys.

Eighth grade: Spike began making cash by becoming involved in an 'unofficial' football team and fighting ring.

Ninth grade: Spike continued to scrape by with her grades as April passed with flying colors.

Tenth grade: Spike and April's lives got very weird, very quickly.

When April was fifteen and Spike was sixteen, Spike noticed when April didn't show up at their meeting spot after school, and knew something was up.

 ** _~Where April Goes~_**

Spike paces the parking lot outside of her and April's favorite pizza places in New York City, glaring down at her cell phone, which stubbornly refused to produce April's voice. She pulls up the sleeve of her sweatshirt and checks the watch on her wrist, which has ticked past the six o'clock meeting time half an hour ago. She dials for the fifth time, chewing on her bottom lip.

It rings again as Spike leans against a streetlamp as the skies above New York darken. Another delivery bike pulls out of the pizza joint. A stream of people continues down the sidewalk. The neon signs continue to flash. Spike's stomach growls mockingly.

Four rings. Five rings. Six.

Spike shakes her head and moves her finger to tap the _'end call'_ button, until the ringing stops, and Spike eagerly waits for her friend's firm happy voice.

April's firm, happy voice does not come. A variation, a twisted version of April's voice emerged. "Spike? Thank goodness! I need help, Spike, both of us, me and my dad! We're in a van, we've been trapped! Captured! By these weird guys, they all look alike! We're being taken somewhere, we're not hurt, but we need help! Please, get somebody or-hey! Get off of me!"

The call ends.

"April?! April?" Spike shouts over the noise on the street as an ambulance drives past. "What's going on?" she asks the inert phone, feeling stupid. She stares wide eyed and helplessly at the innocent machine, fighting the urge to smash it against the concrete. Instead she turns to something else she knows might help.

Two years ago, she had a program set up on her phone by a technology wizard at her school, a program that enabled her to track any phone she had the information on. She had April's phone information.

 _"_ _Is this legal?"_

 _"_ _Well…it's, uh, highly unadvised. But you'll never lose her this way!"_

 _"_ _Thanks, Langinstein. I won't tell if you won't."_

Spike taps the 'activate' button, and a road map of New York City appears. A blinking blue dot appears on the street she herself is standing on, before a line moves from her to a blinking red dot, moving in a direction away from the heart of the city.

April.

Spike turns, eyes half on the phone and half on the sidewalk ahead of her, and begins weaving to a place where she parked her most prized possession.

 ** _~Where April Goes~_**

Spike's long hair whips inside her dark helmet as the motorcycle zips through the streets, as it had been doing for what feels like forever. One hundred and eighty four point eighty three miles in an hour, and she's almost on top of the blinking red dot that has remained still for some time now. That could mean any number of things, and the drive had given Spike enough time to think of reason after reason for a kidnapping.

Ransom?

Government cover ups?

Hostage situation?

In every case, Spike realized too little too late that she had neglected to call the police. Spike reaches into her pocket and grabs a hold of her taser for comfort as she turns onto a large driveway leading to a huge compound, in front of which are armed guards.

Spike turns the motorcycle's engines off and cruises into the bushes lining the area, grimacing as the branches snap. She swings her legs off of the machine and peers through the bush through her dark helmet visor, up towards the compound. Another glance at her phone screen informs her that indeed, April is somewhere in this area.

Nothing for it then. Spike slips behind the bush and drops to her elbows and knees, proceeding to crawl through the underbrush.

Very slowly.

 **Thanks for reading, y'all! Please let me know what you think in a review, it helps me out a lot. I'll see you all in the next chapter, with any luck.**


	2. Chapter 2

Spike Sanchez's grip tightens on her taser as she slips through the shrubbery up towards a guarded compound with apprehension. She takes note of the guards, all lined up in front of the compound. It was as April had said in her message: all looking alike. Each man was tall, with dark hair and unremarkable features, in a pinstripe suit. Each held an odd looking firearm.

Only one looks different, hunched slightly, thin, older, with brown hair and wearing jeans and a tank top.

Spike squints through her helmet visor as a noise begins to grow. An engine.

Lights glow down the driveway, and then a van flies past Spike's line of sight, rocketing towards the side of the building on a collision course.

Spike's eyes widen and she ducks her head as the men move out of the way in time for the van to smash into the concrete and explode.

 ** _~Where April Goes~_**

Taking advantage of the distraction, Spike sprints for the wall, determined to continue her slightly foolhardy rescue mission. She reaches the tall stone obstacle, stopping near the trees growing around the wall. She can't climb the wall, no, but she was always good at the jungle gym. She reaches up, leaping to grab a low branch, swinging herself up and into the tree, clambering out onto a branch reaching over the wall, before dropping on top of the building and surveying the wide open expanse of the rooftop.

 _Oh April, what have you gotten yourself into?_

Spike shakes her head. What's going on here? Government project? Cloning, mutants, a secret army? What did it have to do with April?

The problem facing Spike now was how to get _into_ the compound. There's no doors, no entrance that she could see, no way in, no way out. As she marches along the roof, her foot strikes empty air where there should be solidness, and Spike falls down into the compound, and lands on a fallen grate which once had the job of staying on the roof.

Spike grimaces and stifles a groan, feeling her bruised side. She rolls to her feet, thankful for her helmet again, wondering why the grate was down here, but a look around the hallway soon made her forget about _that._

It's bright, blindingly so, with bright, silver, black and white walls and pink highlights. It all seems….alien. A humming sound fills the air. Spike begins down the hallway, feeling exposed and easy to spot in the brightness. She steps on something and freezes, looking down. In stark contrast to the white floor, one of the identical men from outside is laying on the ground, unmoving.

Spike drops to a crouch, feeling for the man's wrist. No pulse.

Either the man is dead, or was never really alive. His skin doesn't feel like skin at all, just rubbery plastic.

Spike glances up. Someone has either been here before, or is there now. She grips her Taser and creeps down the hallway, with her back pressed against the wall, carefully scouting the area ahead.

After an agonizing few minutes of the humming, she hears voices and freezes. She peers around the corner, and spots something completely unbelievable.

Four green forms, each over five feet tall, with shells, stand with their backs to her. Humanoid, bipedal, whatever word you want to describe them with.

Spike's eyes widen. _Aliens?!_

"Wow, this is unbelievable," the tallest remarks.

 _They speak English?!_

"They're using a metal alloy that I don't even recognize!" he continues.

Spike notices the weapons slung at their belts and straps.

 _Maybe I'm having a nightmare?_

"Gosh, a metal alloy even _you_ don't know about? It boggles the mind," one of the others comments. This one has darker skin than the first, and is quite a bit shorter.

"Dude, you wanna talk metal energy with me? Bring it," the tallest shoots back. Spike notices the purple mask on him, and the red mask on the smaller one.

"I don't. But-"

"Guys," another one says, with darker skin and a blue mask. "What part of being in an enemy lair do you not understand?"

Spike's eyes zero in on the swords he carries as she processes the words. _They're the enemies of these….clones?_

That's when she realizes that there are only three of the….possible aliens ahead. The fourth is gone. Spike's blood runs cold as she turns around.

There, a few inches away and an few inches shorter, stands a light green, freckled, orange masked, nunchuck bearing….thing.

"Hi," he whispers. "Are you an alien too?"

Spike snaps the Taser up and takes aim. "What are you?" she barks gruffly, glad her expression is unreadable behind the helmet.

"Dude, harsh. I'm a turtle! Why don't you take your space-helmet off?"

Spike's eyes alternate between squinting and widening. "What?"

"We're sort of mutants. And ninjas. And teenagers," the turtle shrugs. He sticks out a big, three fingered hand. "My name's Michelangelo! I mean you no harm!"

Spike glances at the hand, but makes no move to lower her taser. "What are you doing here…Michelangelo?"

"We're here to rescue a girl," the turtle explains. "And her dad." He smiles. "What are _you_ doing here?"

"April?" Spike says in surprise, dropping her taser arm. "How do you know about April?"

"We saw her get taken! Hey, if you're here to save her too, you gotta meet the guys!" he declares. He grabs her wrist and starts pulling. "Guys, come on over here!"

Her taser hand being occupied, Spike brings the other arm up and shoves at him, breaking his hold and moving to make a run for it, before three other shadows fall on her.

 **Thanks so much for reading, guys! Please let me know what y'all think in a review, it helps me out a lot. As always, I look forward to seeing you in the next chapter.**


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